If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Ideas For NES Emulator Name

It was hell and tough but I've been working hard on an NES Emulator I've written in VB6, which works. Prior to writing it, I've become obsessed with the ins and outs of the original Nintendo and how it works. I've read many websites, researched everything on the 6502 CPU, the PPU, the APU, mappers, you name it. I even downloaded the source code to many NES emulators in multiple programming languages, such as C#, javascript, java, C++, and even VB6. However the first emulator I downloaded for VB6 was called bNES. It was interesting to say the least that VB6 was even capable of pulling it off, but after reading the source code, I saw it to be horribly written. I mean horrible. For starters, the 6502 code was obviosuly ripped from Zophars Domain where you can get free VB6 modules of the 6502. Those modules seem like it would emulate the 6502, and it does, but whoever wrote it read the wrong documents and kinda blended the 65c02 with the 6502, using more Opcodes than the NES even does, and used 2 extra address modes. Not to mention the cycles were wrong on a bunch of the Opcodes. Another big thing that bothered me was the fact that the NES sounds and music were being outputed using MIDI APIs. Seriously! Who in the right mind would do that? Why not use actual sound? And the controls were god awful. Another NES emulator I found in VB6 was called YoshiNES. The code was exactly like bNES, but seriously improved and tons more features added, such as a hex editor, movie recorder, save states, controls improved, and so on and so forth. A team of people turns out helped put this thing together. The menu on the other hand was in Portuguese, the music and sound was still in MIDI and the 6502 once again, the same? Really?

So after doing many comparisons with many emulators' source code, I've been building my own. Some of the source code I admit was taken from YoshiNES to serve as a basis, or in other words a stencil, but the crap factor is being completely cleansed from it. For starters the entire 6502 module was completely rewritten. Theres just the 56 Opcodes rather than the 60 some odd ones it has, and 13 address modes instead of 15. Almost all the variables were completely renamed. The status register actually has the 7 statuses rather than cryptic hex codes to make the code readable (Sign, Overflow, Carry, Zero, Interrupt, Decimal, Break). Note that every other emulator I've seen had these SRs and not the unreadable hexadecimals. Many of the Opcodes I fixed and improved individually. I still need to change the sound engine entirely as its still in all MIDI. And instead of the just the program using Stretchblt, I'm going to be using DirectX as well, so you get your choice of hardware as well as software. A lot of the code as a whole has been completely rewritten, I've heavily commented it based off the research I've done, and made it more readable and understandable. As I continue working on it, it's gonna get to the point to where once this beast is finished I wanna give it a name. Something that is catchy. Or funny. Something cleaver. I've brainstormed all day but haven't come up with a name of an NES emulator that doesn't sound stupid. Any bright ideas?

Re: Ideas For NES Emulator Name

A few suggestions:-

VBNes

Obvious how I came up with that.

Nes Millennium

You can play around with this one a bit. You can call it the Millennium NES emulator or Mellennium for short. The idea being that this was written after 2000. It stresses the idea that it's a modern emulator not that it would mean much since the NES itself is unchanged.

NTNes

Not particularly clever, the idea being it can run on NT based Windows OSes like XP and Win7.

Wintendo

Windows + Nintendo

Phoenix(My favorite of these 5)

You can play with this one too. Nes Phoenix or Phoenix emulator. This idea is inspired from the story of the phoenix rising from the ashes. All NES emulators I've used were the popular ones developed in the late 90s. I'm surprised that people are still making them today. That's how I got the idea for this name. Its also superbly suitable for some kind of fire bird logo to go with it.

C++ programmers will dismiss you as a cretinous simpleton for your inability to keep track of pointers chained 6 levels deep and Java programmers will pillory you for buying into the evils of Microsoft. Meanwhile C# programmers will get paid just a little bit more than you for writing exactly the same code and VB6 programmers will continue to whitter on about "footprints". - FunkyDexter

C++ programmers will dismiss you as a cretinous simpleton for your inability to keep track of pointers chained 6 levels deep and Java programmers will pillory you for buying into the evils of Microsoft. Meanwhile C# programmers will get paid just a little bit more than you for writing exactly the same code and VB6 programmers will continue to whitter on about "footprints". - FunkyDexter

Re: Ideas For NES Emulator Name

Yeah, I'd think that some play on Loch NES would be better. After all, the project could turn into the Loch NES monster. So, you might go with something like LuckNES or LockNES. Alternatively, you could call it Egg. Therefore, you'd have a NES'd Egg.

C++ programmers will dismiss you as a cretinous simpleton for your inability to keep track of pointers chained 6 levels deep and Java programmers will pillory you for buying into the evils of Microsoft. Meanwhile C# programmers will get paid just a little bit more than you for writing exactly the same code and VB6 programmers will continue to whitter on about "footprints". - FunkyDexter

C++ programmers will dismiss you as a cretinous simpleton for your inability to keep track of pointers chained 6 levels deep and Java programmers will pillory you for buying into the evils of Microsoft. Meanwhile C# programmers will get paid just a little bit more than you for writing exactly the same code and VB6 programmers will continue to whitter on about "footprints". - FunkyDexter

Re: Ideas For NES Emulator Name

Nah RomaNes sounds too Greek. But keep em coming! I've made loads of improvements so far, but still have to work out the bugs. I've noticed in games such as Double Dragon, one of the sprites head is removed and hanging out on the left of the screen. Probably a value off somewhere over where it renders the sprites, but I'll figure it out. I always do. :P

I was actually thinking of also giving the project itself a code name. Hell all the other big companies do it. Windows Longhorn ended up being Vista, Nintendos Dolphin ended up being GameCube. My project on the other hand.....hmmmm

Re: Ideas For NES Emulator Name

Can your emulator run Street Fighter Alpha 2. I remember that being one of the most troublesome games to run on an emulator due to the fact that it uses some special instructions or needs a special chip or something. Can't remember exactly as its been like a decade since I've played emulated console games.

C++ programmers will dismiss you as a cretinous simpleton for your inability to keep track of pointers chained 6 levels deep and Java programmers will pillory you for buying into the evils of Microsoft. Meanwhile C# programmers will get paid just a little bit more than you for writing exactly the same code and VB6 programmers will continue to whitter on about "footprints". - FunkyDexter

Re: Ideas For NES Emulator Name

Oh how silly of me. I forgot there were two types. I never bothered with 8 bit consoles. I've always considered the SNES to be the original Nintendo console and 8 bit systems as tragic predecessors lol.

C++ programmers will dismiss you as a cretinous simpleton for your inability to keep track of pointers chained 6 levels deep and Java programmers will pillory you for buying into the evils of Microsoft. Meanwhile C# programmers will get paid just a little bit more than you for writing exactly the same code and VB6 programmers will continue to whitter on about "footprints". - FunkyDexter

Re: Ideas For NES Emulator Name

Actually historically the original 8 bit NES is what got the video game market out of the video game crash, in which that crash happened back in 1983 due to failures such as E.T. for the Atari 2600, and too many consoles to choose from that overwelmed the consumer market. The NES originally came with R.O.B. The Robot, and had better graphics and games than any other console at the time. What also helped bail out the crash was the creation of Super Mario Bros. This console was so popular back in the 80s that practically every kid around had one, as well as adults, and lasted longer than any console in history even to this day from 1985-1995. Great games such as Contra, Ninja Gaiden, Life Force, Castlevania, Megaman 1 through 6, Double Dragon, and other great titles, increased the popularity of the Nintendo even more, and helped boost sales. When the Sega Genesis came out in 1990, one of the first 16 bit consoles next to the Turbographx-16, its competition with the 8 bit Nintendo led a trend called the bit wars. Even though the Genesis had better graphics and some great titles, the Nintendo was still more popular and shows that sometimes graphics arent everything. Its about the gameplay and the fun factor.

Re: Ideas For NES Emulator Name

Just for the entertainment of people who read this, I will mention that last night was a rough night. I'm not sure quite what I ate at the superbowl party I was at, but it messed with my dreams in ways that I can't imagine. I had forgotten one particular dream until I saw this thread...again. At some point in one fragment of a dream, I was reading a sarcastic Top-10 list about why somebody (perhaps MS, or some other big company of that type) was going to write a NES emulator, and the #1 reason had to do with forcing Jacob Roman to give up on RomanNES (yeah, that was the name they used in the list from the dream) and find something else to do (the #2 reason was also related to JR). I vaguely remember being impressed that Jacob could have made such a visible presence with his NES emulator on various discussion boards that a major company was willing to reference him in their advertisments in a sarcastic way.

Whatever I ate (I blame the chicken, it had some funky coating on it), I really want to be avoiding that in the future. Heck, that little snippet wasn't even the weirdest dream I had, though it was the only one even vaguely programming related.

Re: Ideas For NES Emulator Name

I really haven't given it a true name as of yet, but wouldn't mind a few testers if you prefer. I didn't upload it yet but mapper 1 has been added as well to support games such as Double Dragon, Castlevania 2: Simons Quest, and much much more.

Re: Ideas For NES Emulator Name

Originally Posted by penagate

NESquick

Reminds me of the milk flavouring!

when you quote a post could you please do it via the "Reply With Quote" button or if it multiple post click the "''+" button then "Reply With Quote" button.
If this thread is finished with please mark it "Resolved" by selecting "Mark thread resolved" from the "Thread tools" drop-down menu.
Please consider giving me some rep points if I help you a lot.
Please rate my post if you find it helpful!
Technology is a dangerous thing in the hands of an idiot! I am that idiot.

C++ programmers will dismiss you as a cretinous simpleton for your inability to keep track of pointers chained 6 levels deep and Java programmers will pillory you for buying into the evils of Microsoft. Meanwhile C# programmers will get paid just a little bit more than you for writing exactly the same code and VB6 programmers will continue to whitter on about "footprints". - FunkyDexter